Novel & Cerita Gilded Book Series

In the far corner is a sink and a crude-looking toilet. Hooks line one of the walls, all empty. The air smells like rust and dust. But then, something catches my eye. A shelf near the back, almost hidden in shadow. Not plastic packages this time. Books. Old ones. Their spines are worn, leather cracked. Some have gold filigree. Others are thick and bound in cloth. I move closer, squinting to read the faded titles. “Lineage of Power.” “The Lost Coronation.” “Treaties of the First Blood.”

When I asked the butler, he said there were more than a thousand books in a two-story facility. My hand shuffled the books on one shelf at the left corner of the room and only stopped with a purple light glimmered to a part that evoked my eyes. Since they placed it on the 1st tier of the 10 feet bookshelf, a ladder for someone like me was a must. I grinned when the purple leather book with a gold gilded frame on its sides landed on my hands. They decorated the center with the Daria Empire’s Griffin logo carved from amber, plus the golden clasp added to its vintage aesthetic.

In her hands was the red book cover, torn in two, and the original book cover was finally able to breathe after years of being hidden; in the middle of the original black book cover was a gold symbol. “Bingo.” * “Okay,” Arrow sighed, hovering over the book. “What the Hell is that?” “This,” Chelsa said, her smile never leaving her face. All of us still in that abandoned and underground room, hovering over this book; I held my flashlight up and over the top, letting the gold symbol glint and gleam. “Is a symbol-” “Duh, Chelsa,” Arrow rolled his eyes and I smacked in the arm. “Continue,” I smiled and nodded to Chelsa, she smiled back and continued.

She walked toward the circle of students, and they moved back as if a lion were walking through them. Ivy stopped in front of Bianca. She looked down at the notebooks on the ground. She picked one up and brushed off the dirt. "This book has the design for your father's next summer line, Bianca," Ivy said. Her voice was quiet, but everyone heard it. "I wrote it six months ago. I was going to give it to Julian to help your family as a gift. Because I thought you were my friend." Bianca’s mouth opened, but no sound came out.

A book sealed by blood, only to be opened by the heir who had both fire and forgiveness. “You must go alone,” the priest said. “Only one may enter the Vault.” Jian stepped forward. “She’s not going without me.” Chaewon touched his hand. “This is mine.” He held her gaze and nodded once. The door hissed open. Inside, the vault pulsed like a heartbeat. And there it was, on a pedestal of scorched stone…a book bound in dark leather, etched with fire-glyphs that moved like liquid under her gaze. As she stepped forward, her hand brushed the surface—and the book opened on its own.

She rolled over onto her back, her dark eyes widening as she looked up through the dense treeline. The Gilded Fortress was gone. The massive, multi-million-dollar Bedford estate was a towering inferno of orange flames and black smoke, the dark stone structures collapsing into a massive crater of burning rubble. Everything Dominic had used to cage her, everything she had fought against for weeks, had been completely erased from the face of the earth in a single, calculated stroke of treachery. "Vivian..." A low, ruined groan drifted from the dark shadows beside a massive pine tree.

After he told them that, Ellie and Jennie worked to put me on Harold's surgical table, who then cut me into pieces. Though I lived with Ellie and Jennie in Langford Villa for eighteen years—since I was just a child, they were doing all they could to please Harold, allowing him to impersonate me while coming up with all sorts of ideas to help him torment me. And now, I finally understood—family was nothing to those two, and only love mattered. But I was also curious… When it came to love and privilege, which of the two would they choose? With that thought, I chuckled coolly, "I'll ask you one last time—who's Miles Langford's grandson? And the heir to Skymex Group?"

It didn’t feel like mine to touch. And then—just as I was about to turn away—a spine caught the edge of my gaze. Not with color or glimmer, but with its silence. It was tucked almost too neatly between two broader tomes, their gilded edges crowding it as if to hide its presence. The binding was dark, a shade between bruised purple and coal, cracked with age, and unadorned save for a single phrase impressed in thin silver serif: “The Quiet Cull: A Forgotten History of Hybrid Extinction.”

Others were modern thrillers and contemporary fiction, their glossy jackets still vibrant. But then she came to a section that felt...different. These books weren’t stacked like the others. They were nestled into the shelves like treasures, rich, cracked leather covers, some with gold foiling so worn it was barely legible. Her hand paused over one that read, The History of the Black Moon Pack. Her brows knit. “Pack?” she murmured under her breath, pulling it from the shelf.

She begins to wander. While roaming around, Arabelle notices a set of stairs leading to the second floor of the library. She then climeb up the stairs. She opened another door. She was even more taken aback by the sight. Everything was gold-plated. Tables, chairs, couches, lamps, carpets, bookshelves, and even book covers are fashioned of gold. Her eyes widened as she realized it was a library exclusively for royal family . She chose to return down the stairs to avoid trouble. But before she can do so, a gleaming book catches her eye.